Tirades, manifestoes, and
musings on the role of theatre
in American society.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Tom Loughlin on Indie Theatre and Gentrification

In what I suspect will be a controversial post (but lately, what non-mainstream post isn't controversial) entitled "The Indie Theatre Ghetto," Tom Loughlin discusses data from the Innovative Theatre Fund Demographic Survey of OOB Practitioners that reveals a disconnect between Indie Theatre and the surrounding city. RTWT, but here is the final paragraph:

The biggest question I know of in theatre is “Who is theatre for?” At least in the early part of the 21st century, the data seems to tell us that theatre is primarily for immigrant/urban, ghettoized white people. I think this should change. Sure, I think white people should have a theatre that’s reflective of their community, their history and their values. But I don’t think they should overtake urban areas to do so. It smacks of colonization and a “gold rush” mentality, where the indigenous population gets run out or ignored. We can, and we should, be able to do better than this.